A young mum has revealed how her phobia of being without her mobile phone, known as 'nomophobia,' is so severe she refuses to leave the house unless the battery is at least 60 percent charged.

Sara Jayne Widdowson, 27, says her fear is so extreme that if her phone runs out of battery, or there is no reception, she has an anxiety attack, which sees her heart rate race and her palms become sweaty and shaky.

"The more phones improve, the harder it gets because there is so much more to do without," said Sara Jayne, of Worcester, in the West Midlands.

"Now, you can email, call, text, use apps and even send out your GPS signal if you need help. If you're without your phone, you're cutting off all those forms of contact.

"My phobia has got worse since I had my son Corey, now two. I'm constantly imagining worst case scenarios and worrying something bad will happen and nobody will be able to reach me."

Stay-at-home mum Sara Jayne, who is engaged to partner Adrian Clarke, 35, said she believes the trigger for her anxieties lies in a traumatic incident from her childhood, when she was followed home from school.

She continued: "One day, I was followed home by a man in a van. The police got involved, and nobody was ever caught, but it shook me up.

"This was in the days before mobile phones, but if I'd had one, I could have called for help."

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Although her phone has only died on a few occasions when there's been an urgent situation – once when she fell in the street, and once when she missed a train her mum was expecting her to get – she lives in near constant fear of it happening again.

"I take my phone everywhere, even to the loo," she said. "I keep it in my bra rather than a bag because I worry my bag could get stolen.

"A lot of my family and friends don't know about my phobia, but they joke about how I can't be without my phone.

"I can't see myself getting better, either.

"As a society, we're so dependant on phones.

"Realistically, we don't actually need them, but they're everything to people now, and I don't think that will change."